'Evil walks among us...'

As seems to be the case with most new films of his, it is always a nice little surprise to find out when these films are released; you won't hear anything for a little while and then boom, it's there. Pay the Ghost is something new for Nic and is an interesting original and well crafted film; and as 'blood-disgusting' put it, a parent's worst nightmare.

Within the first minute it sets a very striking mood. It shows us just enough to let us know what we are in for  but also gives us a powerful sense of foreboding, it is a very effective opening and plays well into what is to come soon after the opening titles. This film does what most horror films these days forget to do; it pays attention to character. A significant amount of time is spent developing this family, instead of the film-makers just throwing these characters in a situation in the first few minutes of the film, we get to understand that the stability of this family is a little off. The son shoots a picture of the family with a toy for his Halloween costume, and while he didn't do it with any malicious intent, the fact that this was given attention to clearly shows the situation of the family. I originally thought that the son acted too old for his age and seemed too distant for me to believe that he was the son of this family, but upon seeing the scene with the picture and a few other scenes sprinkled throughout, I understood the reason for the way he is. Speaking of acting, the film has a great and diverse cast that all commit to the material and is overall solid. I felt like I didn't see many of the other characters that much besides the two leads, but I guess given the story, it makes sense. When will people learn to not mess with Nic's family! It's to the point now where the super-natural are trying! 



The film uses all points of the medium of film to its fullest advantage, the lighting is excellent, sound effects are crisp as well as eerie with a very atmospheric and at times soothing soundtrack, you'll see a shadow in the background just moving ever so slowly and by the time you notice it, it is already too late. The cinematography in this film is very cold and reflects the mood of the film very well, its muted look helps reinforce the loneliness and hopelessness of the situation and overall just looks great; the technical aspects of this film are top-notch. It also has one excellent moment that I don't see all too often any more, there will be a still shot of an area that looks seemingly harmless but your eyes will wander over the screen and then you see something looking at you in a corner of the frame and before you can even think it's already jumped into focus and that was really effective. There might have been more instances of that I just didn't happen to notice, but that alone as a one off probably makes it more effective. That being said, while it might not go for the cheap option of having dumb audio cues or loud noises jolting the audiences into being scared as opposed to it being earned by atmosphere, there are a few jump scares and while it might work for some, it doesn't do anything for me. I just applaud the lack of any music in the lead to a build up of a scare because if we're to believe what we are seeing is real, it isn't going to have cues like that.

Source: mansplat

However, despite what it might sound like with it being a horror overload or something, the film is pretty much like this review has been so far, it has two parts and puts them together, the film is a nice mix of the family that is involved and the chills from the horror setting. The film is full of mystery, intrigue and suspense and I honestly didn't know what was going to happen next, I knew the ending would be what our emotions want to happen but overall, I was thoroughly invested. There is a point early on when the audience finds out how much time has passed and that took me by surprise just because of how long this family has been put through this horrible experience, I didn't think it would have been that long. I also think calling it a horror seems to be wrong because it is so much more than that, it's more about the mystery of it all, similarly to The Wicker Man, of course both have their horror elements and are labelled as such for a reason (The Wicker Man especially because of that absolutely shocking and unpredictable end) but the mystery and suspense are so strong instead of just the cheap tricks as were mentioned earlier. 

Despite being an overall solidly made film, there were a few things that I didn't like as much, the main one being that I find it hard to believe that it took a civilian (Cage's character, Mike) to inform the police about the strange thing about the abductions on Halloween, I'm trying to keep it vague as to not spoil it, but it seems like a pretty big thing to be looked over, no matter how busy the NYPD are. I also think it would have been more effective if some of the imagery was shown on screen of the less time than it was. We see a ghostly figure standing in view for a split second before somebody walks in the way of it and that would have been an excellent, 'did I just see what I think I saw?' moment, but then it cuts to a close up and then we can see the figure more clearer than we did the shot before. Also, it might not have seemed important to Mike at the time, but I'm surprised he didn't mention to the cops the strange thing his son said to him. I also thought the person that was seeing strange imagery would have asked someone else if they could see it too, but that didn't happen. I also found character's reactions to seeing ghostly imagery to be awfully casual at times, they'll give a look of discomfort as opposed to, oh, I don't know, screaming? When the film reached its last few minutes I felt like it wrapped up too fast, not as early on as The Runner but I wouldn't have minded if it went on a little longer, I thought this would be around 90 minutes as well. The film also seemed to allude to there being more story to tell, but then again, that might just be something they put in there to fade to credits in a stylistic fashion.

Horror films these days are miserable, very few of them are original as most of them are cheap copies of other cheap copies, (talking about the found-footage season that was 2014) but this film rises above all of that and gives us a unique tale and keeps up the quality of the director's previous work. It reminds me of when Insidious came out and how original and fun that was, speaking of which, the ending of this film seems to take a few pages from that playbook, however Mike mentions that he is writing an article at one point which could be compared to Sinister but if one were to think about it like that then everything would be connected somehow. Honestly though it reminds me of the experience I had with Insidious 2 where all the questions I had about the plot are revealed when the film goes back on itself and it made me smile in a, 'oh now I get it, now I know' kind of way. Some might think, 'oh well of course this thing happens on Halloween because of course' but everything is explained by the end, and it always makes me smile when everything wraps up nicely like that.

source: film.wp.pl

Like with most horror films, if you allow it to and go along with it, you'll be jumping at every noise, but this film slows it down a little and actually cares about the characters, and for most mainstream modern horror film junkies, they will be bored right off. While horror films don't scare me, this might make an audience member paranoid for another reason, and its smart release of being around this time of year, as opposed to the likes of April for some horror films, will make audiences worry even more. Pay the Ghost is a well made, well acted and interesting film, always keeping the audience in suspense. Nic does it again! 

Thank you for reading! 

Edit: spacing issue